Ser. MelanospermEjE. Fam. Chordariaccce. 



Plate LX. 



CLADOSIPHON CHORDARIA, Haw. 



Gen. Char. Frond cylindrical, branched, consisting of a tubular axis, 

 formed of longitudinal, anastomosing filaments, clothed externally 

 with radiating, subsimple, densely crowded peripheric filaments, in- 

 vested with gelatine. Spores obovoid, at the base of the radiating 

 filaments. — Cladosiphon (Kiitz.), from icXahos, a branch, and aMfxov, 

 a tube. 



Frons cylindracea, rarnosa ; axi tubuloso ex jilis longitndinalibus anastomosanti- 

 busformato, jilisque periphericis muco involutes subsimplicibus radiantibus den- 

 sissime vestito. Sporce obovoidea, ad basin Jilorum radiantium sessiles. 



Cladosiphon Chordaria ; stem undivided, percurrent ; branches lateral, 

 elongate, directed toward all sides, simple or subdichotomous ; ra- 

 muli few ; axils obtuse ; peripheric filaments simple, very short, cla- 

 vate, unicellular; spores elliptical. 



C. Chordaria; caule indiviso percurrenle ; ramis lateralibus longissimis quoqno- 

 versis simplicibus v. subdichotomis ; ramulis paucis ; axillis obtusis ; jilis pe- 

 riphericis simplicibus brevissimis clavatis unicellularibus ; sporis ellipticis. 



Cladosiphon Chordaria, Harv. Alg. Exsic. Austr. t. 95, 96. Harv. in Hook, 

 jil. Fl. Tasm. hied. 



Var. /3. Dictyosiphon ; frond smaller, more densely branched, the branches be- 

 set with short ramuli. 



Var. /3. Dictyosiphon ; fronde minori densius rarnosa, ramis ramulis plus minus 

 obsitis. 



Cladosiphon Dictyosiphon, Harv. Alg. Exsic. Austr. 2. 97. 



Hab. On rocks, near low-water mark. Brighton, Port Phillip, and George- 

 town, Tasmania. — Var. /?. At Port Fairy, W. H. H., etc. 



Geogr. Distr. South coast of Australia. North coast of Tasmania. 



Descr. Root a small, conical disc. Fronds generally tufted, 6-12 inches long 

 or more, from \- 1 line or more in diameter, cylindrical. Stem undivided, 

 often flexuous, and sometimes remarkably zigzag and spirally contorted, 

 more or less densely beset with branches throughout. Branches lateral, 

 scattered irregularly, directed toward all sides, flexuous like the stem, either 

 quite simple or twice or thrice forked at long intervals, often bare of ramuli, 

 but in var. /3 beset with short, horizontally patent, filiform branchlets. The 

 branches and their lesser divisions taper to each end, a character chiefly ob- 

 servable in the more robust specimens, but traceable in all. The axils are 

 invariably wide and very obtuse; the apices acute. The frond is hollow, 

 the tube being more than one-third the diameter; the axile cylinder is 



